Two-thirds of Karnataka hit by drought, floods

Nature has thrown up an oddball challenge to Karnataka this year.

More than 130 of the 178 taluks in the state are either reeling under drought or affected by the worst flooding in more than a century during the southwest monsoon.

The state government had recently declared 49 taluks as drought-hit, whereas 103 were designated as flood-affected in August. The drought list includes at least five taluks that were also flood-hit, posing an unusual challenge to the authorities.

Among the taluks that suffered a double whammy of natural disasters are Nargund in Gadag district, Athani in Belagavi district, and Badami, Bilgi and Jamakhandi in Bagalkot district. While vast swathes of land in Athani, Jamakhandi and Bilgi taluks were submerged due to the flooding of River Krishna, Nargund and Badami taluks were affected by heavy inflow in Malaprabha river.

The state had announced 80 taluks as flood-hit on August 10 and added 23 more to the list a week later. Some of the 23 taluks — declared as flood-hit in the second half of August — are also drought-hit.

Speaking to DH, Revenue Secretary (Disaster Management) Anil Kumar T K said the taluks which were affected by both floods and drought had suffered from a riverine flood. "While flooding was restricted to a distance of 500 metres on either direction of the river bank, the rest of the areas in these taluks received scanty rainfall, resulting in drought," he said.

Though they had rivers flowing in full capacity, a majority of these taluks also faced a dry spell of three weeks or more, he said.

According to revenue department sources, declaring a taluk as drought or flood-hit did not mean that all parts of it were similarly affected. "In these taluks too, there might be regions with micro-climates that prevented crop loss. Such plots will not be eligible for compensation," sources said.

Moreover, declaring a taluk as drought-hit allowed the state government to use funds from relief funds to address water scarcity and other related issues during the summer season, they said.